Tis the Season...for small works...

Delicious   oil/canvas   5.5 x 5.5 x 1

I have found that most of my creative energy of late has been devoted to preparing for a wonderful holiday season with my family. I'm sure I don't have to list here all of the added activities that consume December time...we are well aware. As a result, my painting time has come almost to a screeching halt....I simply do not have the attention span or the brainpower to solve visual problems. Mini-paintings are a wonderful solution to keeping our brushes in paint. Sure, they have some problems to solve.....but not overwhelmingly so. And a min-painting can usually be finished in a session. The drawbacks, of course, are those confoundedly small brushes and setting up a large easel for such a small canvas. These small canvasses can be put on shelves and side tables for more intimate viewing....I am particularly happy with the color harmony in " Delicious". This painting is 5.5 x 5.5!

The fat/thin paradox...

Sparse Tree   linoleum print Christmas card

I am an amateur print-maker. In other words, I am no Joan Colbert. But I have done linoleum cut holiday cards a number of times. It is refreshing to work in a different way and to experience different creative problems. Several years ago, I decided to challenge, for myself, the notion of a beautiful Christmas tree. Some folks insist on finding the "perfect" shaped tree every year. Some love tall.....and the taller, the better. Some prefer a certain kind of pine, exclusive, always the most expensive. We are what we decorate? All in all, the notion of bounty rules in the Christmas tree realm. Full has become more beautiful....that is, unless we're talking about the female figure. Well nourished. Well fed. Fewer gaps. Straighter.The kind we like to see on happy Christmas cards. The year of this card, we had a Charlie Brown tree.....the sketch of it turned into a card the following year. Mixing the dark green color was problematic for me, as each batch of mixed paint yielded quiet a different color. My studio is brightly lit, so those that seemed perfect became almost blackish in a more dimly lit surround. Oh well. The bulbs were printed with the tip of an eraser. Several years hence, I realize that there is just too much white space.....perhaps the Charlie Brown tree could have had more branches. I do, however, love the fact that I challenged this notion. I also like the diagonal cuts in the border. Sometimes I am satisfied with a few good passages. I am easily amused.

The Dance...

Before the Dance   oil/canvas   20 x 16 x 1.5

There is absolutely nothing more beautiful to me than THE DANCE. The spontaneous movement of the human body gracefully moving through space. It is pure. And, likewise, I enjoy the movement of forms and rhythmic placement of forms on a canvas. (Mind you, this does not include the dances that are signaled by the counting and recalling of the L-brain saying, "1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4".) I have spent lots of paint, lots of paper, lots of canvas on the beauty of the dancer. Time well spent. And I have a very naive notion that if all people would just dance, the world would be a better place. Spinning, swaying, tapping and spiraling in unrestrained joy. No inhibitions. No rules. Dance like there's no one watching. Paint like there's no one watching. What a buzz.

Eyes to the Skies...

Big Snow   watercolor   20.5 x 13.5

For the past several days, we have been under a severe snow advisory here in northeast Ohio. The skies have been violent and winds severe. Most of the Midwest has been blasted with snow. Here, nothing so far....except extreme cold. We have dodged the snow-bullet temporarily. However, there are several weather systems just south of Lake Erie. Our friends just 50 miles away are shoveling out a foot of snow from their driveways. As they say here in Ohio, "Don't like the weather? Just stick around for five minutes." We artists benefit from our constantly changing environment. "Big Snow" was painted last January from a scene at a horse farm just up the street in Brimfield Center. The huge piles of snow were dirtied from the efforts of snow removal crews. The sky was tumultuous. The only pure white snow was on the rooftops and yards. I wanted to shift attention in this painting to the sky. I used pure color in the counter areas around the clouds and used muddied neutrals in the foreground. "Big Snow" is currently on exhibit at Hudson Fine Art and Framing.

Appropriateness...

April...a sketch

Although I profess to be a lover of novelty and experimentation, I will acknowledge that certain ways of working are appropriate to certain circumstances. Standing while painting and drawing offers the possibility for more movement, grander strokes, a more aggressive application of pigment. Large brushes, large sticks of pigment and pencils with very large leads seem to work the best. So does a large sheet of paper or a large canvas. Sitting while working is more passive and more intimate.....usually leading to smaller sizing of both tools and grounds. Which is best? Neither, in my opinion. Both have their benefits and their limitations. Just like musicians who are able to construct songs that both elevate and let down; both shout and whisper; both accelerate and decelerate; artists who go to both lengths can widen their visual experiences resulting in more freedom and more interest, both for the viewer and for the artist herself. Avoiding the same the same the same. My drawing of April was done in a grandstand at the MAC championships in 2007. It is one of my favorite drawings in the aforementioned sketchbook. It was done in bits and pieces throughout the event with a small pencil, probably a harder lead. It is small and tender. Perhaps I appreciated my patience that evening...my willingness to take a bit longer, to consider a bit more, and to enjoy the finer mark-making. My natural impulsiveness usually precludes this kind of work. Good memory. One of my personal goals is to do that which does not come naturally.

Milestone...

Jane Kovacic...a sketch

Today is a milestone - a big one. I am removing my small sketchbook from my bag and replacing it with a clean and untouched new one. This small book has recorded events and notations since March of 2006 when it was begun. This precious visual diary is now in dangerous condition.....the beautiful cover and binding are pulling away from its pages. It contains hundreds of drawings of family members in recreation and sickness; track and field athletes; and, of course, drawings of my artist friends. It even contains essential insurance information from a traffic accident several years ago when it was the only paper at hand. Despite the fact that I am never successful at multi-tasking, I have, for some strange reason, developed a tolerance for listening to speakers and drawing at the same time. In fact, it is an optimum experience and extremely pleasurable. I beg forgiveness from all speakers past and present as I work and listen simultaneously. One of the first drawings in the book is of fellow artist (and one of my heroines) Jane Kovacic as she uses binoculars at a critique. The drawing has been done in brown china marker and, I believe, captures her character. Many of the drawings are complete; many are faulty in one way or another; and most have been abandoned quite early on. These efforts reflect my life and these marks mirror both my searching and my successes and failures.

A beautiful new leather book has already been selected.....very exciting. Sometimes I leave the first page blank as the pressure of the FIRST PAGE is just too daunting. Time to move on.

Change of Rhythm...

Pine   watercolor   9.5 x 7

Life is full of changes in rhythm. I remember when my children were small, I would no sooner get used to one rhythm of naps and developmental hurdles, then it would be replaced by another. Good thing. It helped me to become more fluid. My background in music and dance enables the enhancement of rhythms for me....they are everywhere! No time of year presents a greater change in rhythm than Christmas. We become ever so busy with the shopping, the wrapping, the baking. Even so, I find that this season brings peace to my soul, in that it signals the beginning of winter, the interior season, which provides me with much needed reflection and production. Many rhythms are more visible with a white backdrop of snow......including that of pine trees. Had I been asked to simply draw the pine tree in my brain which is dependent on the tree-icon of a 6-year-old, I wouldn't have noticed the rhythm. Recently we studied trees in painting class.....not groupings, but the personalities of individual trees. It was then that I noticed this branching rhythm. Peace, quiet, visible rhythms, solitude.

Gotta go..........so much to do.

The Eye of the Beholder...the art critic

The air at Summit Artspace yesterday was abuzz with reactions to Dorothy Shinn's critique of the Kaleidoscope 2009 exhibit. As always, she states her preferences for that which she considers to be non-traditional work and a bit of disgust for those who choose a non-traditional approach. This is old news. The danger of this black and white thinking is dividing artists into polarized groups: the-validated-by-Dorothies and the not-validated-by-Dorothies. This is actually a problem that I have been considering for many years. Us versus them. Very dangerous thinking. Art making and art appreciation come from the R-brain and the responses are largely visceral, instinctual.....without words. Words have their original in a more aggressive L-brain. Almost an unfair attack.....writers and artists simply are not armed with the same weapons. (weapons being a notion of the L-brain.) This interesting problem is discussed at length in Leonard Shlain's The Alphabet versus the Goddess. He is one of my personal heroes along with Erich Fromm.

My friends, Kim and Kevin, and I decided to judge the exhibit ourselves during the time that we gallery-sat. We judged independently (excluding our own works) and then came together for our choices. Interesting, we had some common works on our lists....in fact, none of the award winners. We all enjoyed the landscapes of April Cameron and Carol Klingel's wonderful drawing "Crazy Little Quantum String Thing Called Love".....one that probably would have been in the validated-by-Dorothy category, and the other probably not. Which shows to go you....both were in the validated by Kim-Kevin-Linda category.

I believe that there is room for Dorothy Shinn in this world......and for all of us. Artistic journeys are highly personal. Self-validation.

Candace 4...

Candace in Black and White   watercolor   26.75 x 17

This is it. Candace 4 shows my resolution and I am happy/ After doing some value sketches to decide if I might like the addition of a very dark area, I did just that using a blackish-green and dropping in some orange. (Ideally, these invaluable value studies should be done before beginning any painting, but not as probable in demonstration circumstances where time is at a premium and people want to see you paint) The dark at the top helped to devalue the fedora.....a decision had to be made. Dominance for the hat or the boots....not both. I also left some pink patches showing through to mimic the pattern in the coat. I really like the way the boots drop off of the solid color field onto the lightest area. Although I am basically finished, I am still considering the addition of a very light stroke on the left of the the boot on the viewer's left.

There were actually many more passes than four.....I have described here only the four that were more groundbreaking in order to condense this process.